The research is premised upon the need to understand how minority groups with a different language and culture cope with life problems by turning to their families and to sources of help outside their families. Help-giving systems function to mediate between the individual person and the overarching demands of urban life. The objectives of the research are to examine in depth the relationship between the educational and occupational life-career attainments of Puerto Ricans in New York City in intergenerationally linked parent and married-child families and: (1) continuity and change in the structure of the husband-wife relationship, traditional cultural values, and the uses of sources of help outside the family; (2) the type, the frequency, and the balance of help-giving exchanges between the parent and married-child families; and (3) the differences and similarities between the parent and married-child families in how they cope with problems by turning to friends and neighbors, unofficial help-giving organizations, and the bureaucratic agency system. The research is based upon an intensive, controlled case study of 200 intact Puerto Rican families in New York City which are intergenerationally linked into 100 parent and married-child families.